


Contemplating the Contemplated

by fineh



Category: Single Parents (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Tumblr Prompt, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-22 14:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17061398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fineh/pseuds/fineh
Summary: Will took a step closer, it was one of comfort because at the heart of it all Will cared for Angie. He was Will Cooper, and if his friend was silent while they contemplated kissing him, he would try and make sure they were okay.In which Angie thinks.





	Contemplating the Contemplated

**Author's Note:**

> that's the worst title i've ever come up with i'm sorry

“Aren’t there enough decorations?” They’d been at this for hours, stringing up lights, hanging wreaths, making sure the blow-up Santa was in the middle of the yard.

(“It has to be dead center Angie, otherwise, what are we doing?” They were decorating for eight-year-olds but what did she know.)

Really, Angie should have known better than to ask but she asked because she was cold and her feet hurt, and who cared if the lights weren’t blinking the pattern he’d spent all year planning.

“There’s never enough decorations.”

Angie would disagree, anyone with eyeballs would disagree. The Christmas spectacle outside of Will’s house matched if not surpassed everyone around him, most people in his neighborhood had settled for a string of lights around their roof with the occasional plastic reindeer in the yard. Leave it to Will to go above and beyond.

“Besides, we still haven’t finished inside, there’s an odd number of wreaths and I don’t like it.” Angie bit back a groan because, for some reason, she was trying to spare Will’s stupid feelings. Will must have sensed it because he peered down at her over the edge of the ladder Angie was holding, “You volunteered, remember?”

“Yeah, Will, I remember.”

She didn’t volunteer. She just wasn’t quick enough to make up a fake emergency as the rest of the group had. Douglass had made up some fake work emergency, as had Poppy, and Miggy had latched onto Poppy. Before she knew it, everyone had taken a step back and Angie was subjected to Will Cooper’s undivided, hopeful attention.

Angie D’Amato had lost her touch. She should have been able to dodge Will and his dumb clipboard in her sleep. But she hadn’t, and now she was the sole recipient of his tense energy, and stern directions. Maybe if she’d still had a boyfriend she could have used him as an excuse. Owen hadn’t lasted past Easter, and Dr. Dewan and Will had fizzled out long before that. She could picture them last year, standing on the sidewalk, hands on chins, carefully studying which layout would work the best. Angie was definitely a downgrade, Will would have been better off working by himself instead of recruiting her.

Whatever.

“Will, let’s go inside, we’ll finish up tomorrow. It’s dark out.”

“Five more minutes.”

“No, you said that fifteen minutes ago. Get down, now.” Gross, she sounded like his mom. “I’m letting go of this ladder, going inside and making some coffee. You can come with or face plant off that roof, I don’t care.” There a death threat to balance things out.

Sighing, Will began his descent, “Coffee does sound good.”

“Duh.”

Angie waited for Will on his doorstep while he put the ladder in his garage. She wouldn’t put it past him to spend another five minutes measuring his yard to figure out where exactly was dead center. Who cared where St. Nick sat? (After the day she’d spent with Will she was over Santa.)

Will didn’t get distracted surprisingly, he was standing next to her wiping his feet on the doormat in seconds.

“C’mon,” She motioned at him to unlock the door, “I’m freezing.”

“Um, Angie…” Will stopped in his pocket-patting, hand frozen over his chest, covering a reindeer on his ridiculous sweater.

“Yeah, you’re from Denver and not cold I get it can we just…” Angie gestured at the door again, annoyed at his insistence on security.

“It’s not that.”

Angie stopped rubbing her hands together. “What?”

Will pointed up, and Angie didn’t need to look to know what he was pointing at, she’d put it there herself.

The one decoration they’d disagreed on.

(“Dude, you need mistletoe.”

“I don’t know.” Will had wavered, “I don’t want to force people to do something they don’t want to.”

“It’s not that serious,” Angie had snatched the mistletoe from Will, and climbed up the ladder, “If people want to kiss they will. If they don’t they won’t.”

Will had wrung his hands but had let her put it up, knowing that she wouldn’t budge.)

“Look, Angie,” Here he stood again wringing his stupid hands like the sentimental schmuck he was, “It’s like you said, we don’t have to if we don’t want to.”

That was the problem, wasn’t it? Angie wanted to, she had wanted to for a while.

It was why she had dropped Graham off with Miggy, endured his teasing, and then made her way over to Will’s when she could have easily claimed a work emergency. Angie had wanted to spend time with Will. She wanted to watch the way he went from laser-focused on a single task to trying to incorporate a million ideas that were nowhere on his stupid clipboard. She wanted to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or pass out from excitement. She wanted to swap stories of past Christmases and plan future ones. She wanted to pretend she didn’t notice the way he smiled at her when he thought she wasn’t looking, and the way his smile would widen when he saw her looking back.

She wanted him.

“Angie,” Will took a step closer, but that step wasn’t imposing or demanding, it was one of comfort because at the heart of it all Will cared for Angie mistletoe or not. He was Will Cooper, and if his friend was silent while they contemplated kissing him, he would try and make sure they were okay. “We don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

“What?”

“I want to.” She repeated, the air around her was somehow warmer than it had been moments ago. “I want to kiss you.”

“Oh…”

Oh, as is in oh shit, Angie had just messed up.

“Okay!” Angie didn’t know where to look, “I’ll just be going now, promised Miggy I’d pick Graham up at 8.” Except Graham was sleeping over and they both knew it.

“Angie!” She shrugged off his half-hearted attempt to stop her.

“It’s fine, Will.” Focusing on the tree on his sweater, Angie took a step back. “I’ll see you around.”

“No.” This time she couldn’t shrug him off, he held on steadfastly, not hurting her, but refusing to let her go. “You can run from Owen, and Max, and Jake. But you’re not running from me, or yourself. I’m not going to let you.”

“I don’t–”

“You do,” Will disagreed. “You run far and fast, either to me or Poppy. So before you go interrupt Poppy’s fake plans you’re going to stand here and listen to me.” Once Angie agreed not to bolt, Will let her go. “You didn’t even let me process, Ange. Don’t you think I’m allowed to be surprised when finally, in your own roundabout way, you admit you like me?” Will ran a hand through his windblown hair, “God Angie, it’s been almost a damn year and you haven’t figured out I like you, and that, of course, I want to kiss you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“I’m not good at this kind of stuff.” She never had been, she was constantly missing cues where others saw and acted on them. Even with her horrible social skills, it was hard to miss this one.

He kisses her.

A first kiss that’s been at least six months in the making. Every jab, conversation between drop-offs, and encouraging word has led to this moment and it’s better than Angie thought it would be. His warmth draws her closer, his body as solid as she remembers from all the times they’ve pulled each other close, initiating the other into whatever they needed help with. He kisses her the way she thought he would, firm but yielding, two traits she’d learned to associate with Will. He was a dork, but one of those dorks that no matter how hard you tried, you ended up befriending and falling a tiny bit in love with them.

Angie broke away, damn him.

“You look happy,” Will smiled down at her, and she blinked up at him his words sinking because yeah, she was scared but she was happy. Accidental upgrade level happy.

“I am.”

Will pulled her into one of those bear hugs she always pretended to hate, “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me here on [tumblr](http://finehs.tumblr.com)


End file.
